B12: Next Generation Supernova Surveys

Principal Investigators: M. Kowalski and B. Leibundgut

Summary

The next generation wide-field imaging surveys, such as LSST and PanStarrs? will deliver up to $10^5$ SNe per year below a redshift of one and provide statistics of more then two magnitudes larger than today. The bottlenecks to utilizing this increased statistics will be the understanding of systematic uncertainties and the significant spectroscopic follow-up capabilities needed for redshift and classification of the SNe Ia. Currently, the SNIFS Integral Field Unit (IFU) Spectrograph, as part of the SNfactory project, gives a first glimpse of the power of spectrophotometry for SN cosmology. We propose to prepare for the spectroscopic follow-up of the next generation wide-field surveys through the following measures: 1) Reduce systematic uncertainties through wavelength dependent calibration of the SNIFS IFU spectrograph with In-Situ light sources. 2) Development of an automatic spectral classification methodology. 3) Preparation for a next generation IFU spectrograph for SN cosmology.to top